Treasury is promoting new legislation which will enable the Financial
Supervision Commission to regulate persons providing services in relation to
trusts.

The Fiduciary Services Bill 2004 has been produced after extensive consultation
with the trust service industry, including an external review of the proposals
by the London law firm, Stikeman Elliott, whose particular areas of expertise
are trust and regulatory law.

The Bill amends the Corporate Service Providers Act 2000 so that corporate
service providers (CSPs) and trust service providers (TSPs) will collectively be
known as ‘fiduciaries’ and any person providing CSP and/or TSP services will be
required to hold the relevant class of fiduciary licence.

Licensing of fiduciaries is already established in other jurisdictions,
including Jersey, Guernsey and Bermuda, and the Stikeman Elliott review
confirmed that the regime contained in the Bill compares well with the
legislation in place in these jurisdictions. The intention to introduce such
regulation in the Isle of Man has been known for a number of years.

The Manx Government confirmed to the International
Monetary Fund, during its review of the Island’s financial sector regulation and
supervision, that proposals for TSP licensing would be progressed by extending
to TSPs the licensing, regulatory and supervisory regime currently applied to
CSPs under the Corporate Service Providers Act 2000. In doing so, the Bill will
bring the Island into line with internationally accepted regulatory standards.